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Preity Zinta

Preity Zinta's Biography

Name: Preity Zinta

Birthday: 31st January 1975

Zodiac: Aquarius

Marital Status: Single

Awards: Winner of 19 Indian film awards, 3 International Awards and 11 other awards, she is also the first recipient of Godfrey’s Mind of Steel Award for her courageous act against the Mumbai Underworld. Preity has also been bestowed with several other honors and recognitions.

Trivia: Besides being a successful film actress, Preity Zinta is also a social activist, television show presenter and a stage performer, and has also written columns for BBC News Online South Asia. She owns a production company named PZNZ Media and co-owns IPL cricket team Kings XI Punjab along with her ex-beau business Ness Wadia.

Biography: Preity is the daughter of Late Durganand Zinta, an Army Officer, and Nilprabha Zinta. She was born in Rohru in Simla district and has two brothers. A self-confessed tomboy, Zinta completed her education in Simla. She graduated with a degree in English, and later pursued her post-graduation in criminal psychology, but eventually took to modeling. Her first ads were for Perk chocolate and Liril soap.

Her first two films ‘Dil Se’ and ‘Soldier’ were well-received and earned her the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut. She proved her versatility by playing a single teenage mother in ‘Kya Kehna’, for which she was nominated for the Best Actress award. Her next film ‘Mission Kashmir’ was also successful, and was followed by Farhan Akhtar’s National Award-winning film ‘Dil Chahta Hai’. This was followed by a brief unsuccessful phase as her films like ‘Chori Chori Chupke Chupke’ and ‘Dil Hai Tumhara’ were not commercial earners.

Preity bounced back to success with major grossing films like ‘The Hero: Love Story of a Spy’, ‘Koi…Mil Gaya’ and ‘Kal Ho Naa Ho’. The first was the most expensive Hindi film produced at that time, and despite being a commercially grossing film, it did not recover its costs. The next was a science fiction film which earned the Filmfare Award for Best Movie. For her performance in ‘Kal Ho Naa Ho’, Preity received the Best Actress Award.

The bubbly actress played a TV journalist in Farhan Akhtar-produced ‘Lakshya’. The film received positive response from the critics. She then played the female lead in Yash Chopra’s love saga ‘Veer-Zaara’, which was the highest grossing film of the year both domestically and internationally. The film went on to win several major awards, and is considered as one of her milestone performances. Subsequent films like ‘Salaam Namaste’ and ‘Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna’ were also top grossers of their respective times.

After her commercial failures ‘Jaan-E-Mann’ and ‘Jhoom Barabar Jhoom’, Preity Zinta played a struggling actress in Rituparno Ghosh’s English film ‘The Last Lear’, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2007. Deepa Mehta’s social drama ‘Heaven on Earth’ starring Preity received a smashing response. She was honored with the Silver Hugo Best Actress Award at the International Film Festival in Chicago in 2008.

She has also been the anchor for television shows like ‘Guinness World Records- Ab India Todega’ and ‘Up Close & Personal with PZ’. Her upcoming films include ‘Ishkq in Paris’, which is her first home production, and Neerraj Pathak’s action comedy ‘Bhaiyyaji Superhitt’.

Preity Zinta has also been involved in social causes like AIDS awareness, blood donation, women empowerment, protests against female infanticide and human trafficking and welfare of widow and children. She is popular in the media as a straightforward person, and was the sole witness not to refrain from her statements in the 2003 Bharat Shah- Mafia case. She broke up with Ness Wadia, her business boyfriend of four years in 2009.